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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sweet Blueberry Bread

With a little bit of butter, or some jam, or by itself.......It's still delicious!

Ingredients:

3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

1 package active dry yeast

1 cup milk

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter, plus 2 tablespoons (melted) for brushing

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup dried blueberries

1/4 cup rum

Directions:

Place the dried blueberries in a medium sized bowl and pour the rum over them. Let it sit until most of the rum is absorbed by the blueberries, and the blueberries turn soft. Drain and set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat and stir milk, salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and butter over medium heat until the butter melts and the temperature registers to 110-120 degrees F. Remove from the heat, add yeast and mix until the yeast dissolves. Let it rest of about 5 to 10 minutes, until the yeast mixture turns foamy. Transfer the yeast mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add the remaining of sugar and 3 1/2 cups of flour, along with the eggs.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour (if needed) to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Fold in the blueberries. Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turn once to grease surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until dole in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough, and divide into 3 portions. Roll each portion into a ball, then roll each ball into evenly thick rope about 16-inch long. Line 3 ropes on a greased baking sheet, and braid the ropes loosely from one end to the other end. Press the ropes ends together to seal. Let rise and bake in the 375 degrees F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until turns golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven, brush with melted butter immediately. Transfer to a wire rack to cool down.

I found this recipe on another blog about 6 months ago and have easily made it a dozen times. I always use fresh blueberries and it turns out wonderfully. The blueberries swell when they are baking and then burst the blueberry juices into the bread. We love the bread for breakfast or even a late night snack. It also makes a *delicious* French toast! So happy I found this little gem!

Sorry It took me forever to reply to this. My blogger email notification has not been working properly and I just found out about your comment like 3 minutes ago :(But I'm glad you like the recipe, and thanks for the tips on using fresh blueberries. I will try it soon.